Saturday, April 15, 2006
The suspects are being held in a federal prison in Michigan.
TOLEDO (AP) -- Two Ohio newspapers have asked a federal judge to unseal records related to searches of the home of one of three men accused in a suspected terrorist plot and a travel agency where one of them worked.
U.S. District Judge James Carr scheduled a hearing for Monday on the request by The Blade and The Plain Dealer to unseal the sworn statements, filed in March.
The statements sought warrants to search the Toledo home of Marwan Othman El-Hindi and AZ Travel Agency, also in Toledo, where co-defendant Mohammad Zaki Amawi worked.
The two men and Wassim Mazloum were arrested in February and accused of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to attack U.S. and allied troops overseas. All three lived in Toledo within the last year.
They have pleaded innocent to charges including conspiring to kill Americans and conspiring to provide or conceal support to terrorists, and are being held in a federal prison in Milan, Mich.
Stephen Hartman, attorney for El-Hindi, said the issue of sealing records will likely come up several times in the case.
Fritz Byers, attorney for The Blade, said the U.S. Constitution requires that criminal trials be conducted publicly to protect both the defendant and the public.
Courts have granted more requests from prosecutors to seal records since the 2001 terrorist attacks, said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Toledo.
"The criminal law in the post-9/11 world has become much more prosecution-friendly in terrorist cases and any case that smacks of terrorism," he said.